Deer and Dodge
 

Monday night on my way home from work i had a deer run out in front of me no chance to get stopped so i hit him dead center with the front end with the tires locked up and sliding. the body shop estimate is $3600.00 for repairs insurance company dragging their feet trucks been at the shop seance Tuesday afternoon and they haven't even sent out the adjuster yet to look at it. im extremely pissed im getting jacked around over this. im with out transportation no rental available for me according to my insurance company. heres some pics

makes me wish i was home 2 hunt deer

my insurance company took 4 weeks to close the deal on my truck when i hit a deer

Ouch! :ouch:

You kept the deer you hit? Isn't that illegal...if you get caught?:w2:

Ouch! That sucks. Hopefully everything works out for ya. The truck looked good with all those lights mounted below the bumper. Bet that looks awesome at night. :U:
Why cant he keep the deer? I wish people would do that around here. Instead they just leave em sit on the side of the road to rot. :booo:

Not around here, you can call DEM or the State Police to report it but you ncan keep it, its not like you tried to hit it.................unless you did:w2:

take it to a different shop there are certain shops that i can go to and they use the shops estimate. they call it service first state farm insurance so you get your truck back quicker

is it just me or does 3600 sound really high for the damage we can see? I mean even if the radiator is punched, its still the rad,bumper,maybe grille,airdam??? that it?

Yeah, looks to me like all it needs is a new bumper. Where do they get 3,600? :argh:

There might be alot of damage that you cant see in the picture. Wiring for the fog lights, air bag sensors ect. If the intercooler and radiator is fine I'd just collect a check and buy a road armor/ ranch hand style bumper.

Exactly what I was thinking... :U:

ouch man that sux hope u didnt tag him haha sorry bro that really bites good luck

I cant tell entirely from the pictures, but the fenders almost look like they are pushed up a little

Isn't it amazing that even though you send them all that money every month they still like to drag there feet

Thats nice, it is kind of pointless to let them rot in the ditch. If a person can make use of it, thats great. I just know we've all seen dumber laws before. :humm:

I hit one last year and they wanted me to tag it if i kept it, so i had to leave it where it was. One reason is it wasn't dear season so no tags being sold.

The damage was about the same and my insurance co. only payed have that price. :argh:

Good luck & that always suxs!

:ouch:

Ok for starters its not illegal to keep the deer around here you have to have a cop come out to the scene and they will wright you a tag for the deer and it doesn't even cost anything for it and when i took the deer to the processor they even had a separate box for the tags for vehicle hits.

As far as the damage on the truck the pictures do it no justice at all. the shop estimate says their replacing front bumper, fog lights, both bumper brackets, upper bumper cover, front valance, air deflector, both turn signal lens, ac condenser, intercooler, radiator, hood, grill, grill frame, right fender, lower core support has to be straightened on the frame rack, fan shroud, washer fluid bottle, radiator over flow bottle, plus paint, ac recharge, color sand an buff, and this estimate was wrote out without the hood being open because it wouldnt open. but it all came to a total of $3605.04

Oh man that really bits!

Well, at least you have a couple of meals while you wait to get it priced.

It is hard to tell from those pics.... Looks like all those other parts should be fine... But if they are bent, then they need to be replaced!

Those last pics seem like the truck is at your house? If so, that won't help the ins. co. to hurry along. I found out once the hard way to not 'save' them any cost or trouble. By keeping it home, mine wasn't paying a storage fee on it so they seemed to have taken longer. Also, there is a vast difference between different ins. co. That is also a thing that you just have to shop around for. Basically you will never know unless you experience it (Like you are currently) or ask the right people. If you can find a person who deals with this daily (Like at a body shop) and will tell you the truth, then they can be a great source of who you want and who to stay away from. Basically you can figure it out just by their commercials. If they continually advertise then they have a large turn over of customers and constantly need to find new ones! Usually constant advertising is a bad sign. I don't know how we feel here about naming but I could list a few that I know I would recommend to stay away from.

I just got a Road Armor front bumper with the optional grill guard. I really like it! I am pretty sure looking at your truck that it would have prevented any damage to your truck in this instance! They are spendy to purchase outright; but, it would have saved you any damage and down time in this case! I will try to get some pics up of mine. I would highly recommend it! Only draw back that I can see is that it is about 100 - 150 LBS heavier than the OEM and if you are in a wreck (That has enough force) then your frame will be bent! I was told this: "Let's say you are in a wreck that cost around $5,k of body damage with your OEM bumper. Then get in the same wreck with that Road Armor and it will destroy your frame. It is no big deal as you can have your frame replaced for the small fee of only about $15,k".
The way I look at it: the Road Armor will protect and save money in small hits and if the impact is hard enough to destroy the frame of the truck, it will still protect my family. At that point the truck becomes a 'sacrificial anode' anyway. The main thing is to keep my family safe! If it costs me the truck, then so be it!
Another thing we should all be doing is to add deer advoidance devices to our rigs (All of them! Especially smaller ones . . . Like motorcycles!) The cheap ones will work above 40 or 50 MPH as long as bugs don't plug the small hole in front. The ones we should all get are these:
xp3hornet
I know they look to be expensive but the alternative is much more so!! (Not having them!) After the first deer I hit, I put on the cheap wind whistle kind. We were on a road trip across the whole U.S. After installing them and traveling at freeway speeds, I noticed deer stopping what ever they were doing and watching me go by. Then as I was almost past they would return to eating or walking. The only time that whistle didn't catch their attention is when they were already in a full run.
The electronic, powered whistle I linked to is a much better device. I found his site some time ago, and I think I read on there that he has lost several family, friends to deer strikes. That is why he invented the device. Watch the CNN video on the home page. I am ordering some for my vehicles right now. It seems expensive, but it is much better than not having them. I also have to call my ins. agent this morning. My son backed into a friends new car. The small 'scratch' dent will cost $3,500 + to fix. My son's '85 W250 really didn't sustain any damage . . . . So I think some bright back up lights are going to be installed. (In fact, on all my vehicles! Especially the ones with tint. I think that contributed to this 'dent'.) I'm also going to install some very bright LED strobed brake lights on all my vehicles. Before you tell me they might be illegal; I'm not even going to check! I don't care! My wife was rear-ended late last year by a business 1 ton delivery van. It totalled our little Corolla. My wife still suffers from the wreck. I don't know if it was texting or just talking on a cell phone that contributed to the wreck. Only good thing about it was that their ins. is actually covering (And finally starting to pay for) the damages and medical bills. The driver didn't seem to hit her brakes at all before striking my wife (Who had come to a complete stop 30 to 45 seconds earlier!). I am hopeful that these extremely bright strobing LEDs will catch the attention of in attentive drivers in the future.

I'm making this way too long (A trade mark of mine!) My main point in all of this is just to make things as safe as possible. I would recommend the Road Armor bumper and some other devices. If anyone wants, I will try to get up a pic or two of it on my truck. I will have to say that it gets noticed lots!! It may be my imagination, but I think people are actually giving me a little wider birth too! That is a great thing! Most just don't realise an 8,000 LB pick up shouldn't have to brake that hard to miss them.

This is why i have found a ranchhand to be a very good inevestment. We have them on all the trucks. The 02 dump truck has hit 50+ all over 70mph, my 02 has hit 10+ (but mine were on purpose), 99 has hit 40+ all over 70mph. But i do live in the over populated southern iowa were i can hit a deer every day of the year if i wanted.

What does the eyeball looking at the truck yourself estimate say? :w2:

well im not putting a ranch hand bumper on my truck, personally i don't think they look good on my truck its green and chrome and its not a farm truck or a full time work truck i sled pull it and daily drive it. The pictures were taken the morning after right before i drove it to the body shop for the estimate so it sat at my house from about 12:30 to 10:30 when i drove it to the shop. The insurance company was dragging their feet to send an adjuster to look at it, the truck was at the shop the morning after i hit the deer and sat untouched awaiting the insurance adjuster untill this monday morning and the first estimate was wrote with out being able to get the hood up due to the damage, so the estimate went up after the shop opened the hood, the adjuster and the shop reached an agreement on price of $4600.00 and like i said the pictures do not show the full amount of damage. the lower core support was what took the blunt of the hit and that trashed everything around it the fan shroud broke off the radiator and the radiator intercooler and ac condenser are all shaped like a U the fan hit the radiator and looks to be bent so its being replaced also, and last but not least everything thats being replaced is all OEM parts.

Sounds like they are going to take good care of you! Finally!!
Like I said earlier; there is a huge difference between different companies!

i just had the exact thing happen to me on my 96, found place in cleveland called certifit got a brand new chrome bumper for 89$ the bottom grey valence for 20 even as well as the black valence for 20, all brand new original parts made to fit exactly like oem for half the cost. when i hit my deer the top of the bumper was a 1/16th of a inch from the inercooler and pinched the smaller cooler in the front but didnt bust the core. close call there

Yeah insurance companies suck! The damage on my truck from my accident in July was $1800, all front-end stuff not as bad as yours, and they said my insurance might go up to $4600 a year....I have only one speeding ticket on my record from a year ago, and NO accidents other than this one...:edit: insurance companies drive me nuts. :argh: I will tell them if they do that they can cancel my policy, purely on principle. I'll go through someone else even if it's the same rate just to show them that they don't own me.

yea ive fought with this insurance company for a few years now and ive had it with them i spend all this money ever month and never late anything i have one point on my license so my rates are affected by that but they keep trying to raise my premiums when my policy renews i have to call and threaten them to make it right, then i have this happen and they say get it to the shop and well get someone out their the next day so i do it and it sets at the shop for a week before someone shows up, the guy that owns the shop told me for the time its sat at his shop it could have been fixed already. i had to go to my insurance company and bitch then call my claims adviser and bitch and threaten them too get something done but i pass the shop everyday on my way to work i seen it inside today its going back together and the shop owner said if he didnt run into any problems with parts or anything i should have it back by the end of the week so im looking forward to getting my truck back.

if u wann see what it would look like with a aftermarket bumper, u can look at my pics, sme color as urs :U:

hope they get urs fixed asap

My wife hit a deer with the Jetta and we have progressive Insurance. They asked if we wanted to use one of their approved shoppes (repair then has a life time guarantee) or use the shop of my choice. We went with their shop and we had the car back in 5 days. They put on new hood,front fender,bumper and headlights. I was happy with the speedy repair.

Well today is the start of week 3 with out my truck. Im becoming good friends with the guy who owns the body shop were its at he calls me with updates almost daily he was shooting to have it done friday but i stopped in to check it out and pointed out a few things when they replaced the broken fog light they didnt match and when they ordered parts they ordered everything for the 98 and my fog lights were 99 to 01 so he pulled it off and ordered the other new one to match up, he ran into a snag with the handle and rod that goes behind the grill for the secondary hood latch mine was destroyed so he ordered the new one and it didnt come with everything else he ordered so he called and the supplier said its a back ordered part. so that means we cant close the hood yet, he has all the ac systems charged at a local shop a few miles down the road so friday it went to get the ac system charged with no hood on the truck. but hopefully i get it back soon ive gone from pissed off to depressed to pissed off again i want my truck back its all i have to drive ive been riding my harley rain or shine and its getting cold at night on my way home from work.

pretty pricey venison huh:ouch::madd:to bad about frikkin frakkin insurance company

Sucks that it's taking so long, but at least it sounds like the shop is doing it right.

I just want my truck back i don't think it should be taking this long, shop guys doing good work but the insurance company is constantly fighting with him about his cost and labor rates they have made no attempt to contact me about anything i have not received a check for the repairs yet and the shop hasn't ether.

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got my ride back today looks dam good, im realy happy with it. ill post some pics this weekend after i get some stuff taken car of.

Awesome!!

I don't know if we like to throw around names of companies here or not.... (If it's ok to name 'names' then I think I know who your insurance company is! I have 2 or 3 in mind who seem to act like this.!!)
Along the same lines of naming 'names' I think I like my ins. co. My boy hit a friends new car the other day and it wound up being at least a $3,500 'scratch'! They are nation wide and had it handled the same day I called it in (Or the next, at the latest!)! Then my friend tells me how he liked dealing with them. The shop he is taking it to supplies a loaner vehicle while yours is being repaired. My friend asked for a rental and is getting that too from them. My friend stressed how he liked dealing with them and how they took care of everything. He said they already sent the money for the repair and his car doesn't go in to the shop until Monday.
I have no idea how this will affect my rates yet. I'm afraid to ask. Maybe I should so they will know I'm thinking about that. My agent had just called me a few months ago to tell me she had to 'adjust' my bill. I don't like hearing things like that but figure it is inevitable. I had just paid my premiums so I told her to send me the bill and I would pay it. She told me that I mis-understood. She sent me a check for almost $500!! I told her that she would have to call more often!! Since everything else has gone up so much this last year, I was blown away with this news!!
Oh, the other thing that seemed strange to me with this little 'accident' was when I called my agent to report it. A lady answered the phone I had never heard of. When she gave me her number to call her back later, I noticed it was in a way different part of the state! I asked her about that and she told me that their phone system will just forward a call to the next available person who can take the call. This just seems like a neat way of doing business! I kind of hate voice mail and I really hate getting stuck with the 'robot' computer that answers most phones these days. So this seems like an improvement to me! I don't mind talking to a 'new' person when they can help! And this new agent took care of it all for me too!
There is a big difference in ins. co.s for sure!! I would recommend this one to everyone. I saved a bunch of money switching to them and so far I like how they have taken care of me!!